2 minute read
Streaming now
from The FUSE 2021
Wilderness, a film written by Falmouth associate professor Neil Fox and crewed almost entirely by students studying both BA and MA Film and Television courses, is now available to stream across major digital platforms.
The film, which follows the fresh romance of jazz fan Alice and touring jazz musician John during an impulsive coastal getaway, was funded by Falmouth’s School of Film & Television using an innovative micro-budget filmmaking model that creates opportunities for students to work on professional projects.
Neil said, “People had an idea of what we might make for that amount of money and that amount of time. When they saw it, they were impressed and realised that it can be something more ambitious than two people sitting in a room.”
Behind director Justin John Doherty’s camera, it was Falmouth students who were pulling many of the strings. Students worked as camera assistants, production assistants, sound recordists, boom operators and location coordinators amongst other roles. Neil said, “Ultimately, the experience for the students was what funded the project. There were more than 30 students involved on the film at various times. Showing the students how independent films are made, by actually making one, and bringing them on set, is incredibly valuable… there are so many things you can do in a classroom, but there are limitations.
“It’s why we make so many films in the school and why we try to involve students with as many productions as possible. It’s peer learning in a way that is so meaningful.”
As well as involving students heavily in the project, Neil also collaborated with colleagues at Falmouth with specialist skills, including sound technician Jem Mackay and senior lecturer Rosa Mulvaney.
Neil said, “The film is set in the late 60’s, so it became clear that we’d need to mask a lot of modern things like satellite dishes. Rosa acted as the VFX supervisor and put together a team of her students to eliminate modern appliances.”
According to The Guardian, the final result is a film that is "rather lovely, a talky cine-literate portrait of a new relationship set in the 1960s… (that) plays out in absorbing emotional detail."
Watch it now Keep your eyes peeled for Enys Men
Falmouth lecturer and BAFTA-winning director Mark Jenkin is working on his new project Enys Men, following the runaway success of his film Bait.
The film is set in 1973 and it centres on a woman living alone on an imagined island off the coast of Cornwall who is volunteering to observe an extremely rare flower that only grows on land contaminated by an old Cornish tin mine.
As her isolation grows, she starts to believe that the ancient standing stone, which sits at the highest point of the island, is slowly moving towards her cottage. The ecological horror wrestles with the idea of human intervention in the natural world and how very little things can knock things out of balance.
As with Bait, which won the Outstanding Debut for a British Writer, Director or Producer BAFTA, Mark has worked with staff and students at the University throughout the production of the film, so look out for more details.
